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PAST  AND  FUTURE: 


OR 


ROMANISM  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


TEE  SAME  WITH 


THE  ROMANISM  OF  TO-DAY. 


"Give  rao  liberty  er  give  me  death.'-"— Patrick  Henry 


Y    JEHU 


SECOND  EDITION,  WITH  AN  APPENDIX. 


CINCINNATI; 

PllINT£D    TOU    THE    AUTHORj 

Ht  JOHN  ».  THORJPE,  WO.  74  WEST  FOURTH  STREJll'j 

1852, 


PREFACE, 


Recent  events  have  imparted  a  new  interest  to  the 
long  debated  question  concerning  the  political  tenden- 
cies of  Romanism.  The  conflicts  between  the  spirit  of 
liberty  and  the  spirit  of  oppression  in  Europe,  have 
waxed  warmer,  and  seem  evidently  approaching  the 
final  struggle.  The  apparent  triumphs  of  the  former, 
in  1848,  gave  to  the  Roman  clergy  an  occasion  for  pro- 
fessing a  most  ardent  attachment  for  its  principles  ,  and 
the  late  reaction  has  emboldened  them  to  throw  off  the 
mask,  and  appear  more  fully  in  their  true  character,  than 
for  many  years.  In  our  own  country  they  have  proba- 
bly felt  constrained  to  speak  out,  lest  their  followers 
should  be  carried  away  with  the  prevailing  sentiments 
in  favor  of  liberty  of  the  press  and  freedom  of  conr 
science.  Certainly  it  is  high  time  that  Americans  un- 
derstand this  subject.  Romanism  is  radically  despotic, 
and  can  never  be  otherwise.  Its  fundamental  articles 
of  faith  compel  those  who  embrace  it  to  be  the  ene- 
mies of  liberty;  and,  therefore,  all  hope  of  reform  in 
this  respect  is  perfectly  vain. 

The  writer  of  the  following"  pages  wields  a  vigorous 
pen,  and  has  brought  out  some  very  important  truths, 
which  may  be  safely  commended  to  the  very  serious 
consideration  of  all  true  Americans,  and  of  all  friends 
of  free  institutions.  Having  himself  been  a  member 
of  that  communion,  he  may  be  supposed  to  know  some- 
thing of  its  spirit  and  principles,  N,  L,  R. 


PAST  AND  FUTURE, 


That  point  in  progress  is  forever  passed, 
when  time  honored  usages  can  receive  the  in- 
discriminate homage  of  mankind,  and  be  ad- 
mitted as  universal  standards. 

In  by-gone  ages  of  despotism  and  barbarism, 
the  will  of  the  Monarch  was  regarded  as  the 
supreme  Law  of  the  land,  and  to  the  iron  scep- 
tre of  the  tyrant,  right  or  wrong,  the  down- 
trodden subject  was  obliged  to  submit. 

The  age  in  which  we  have  the  happiness  to 
live,  presents  a  very  different  aspect.  The  in- 
quiry now  is,  not  what  our  ancestors  believed 
or  did,  but  what  we,  under  existing  circul^stan- 
ces,  should  believe  and  do. 

That  our  fathers  groped  their  way  in  the 
dark,  and  permitted  others  to  think  and  act  for 
them,  is  no  good  reason  why  we  should  not 
think  and  act  for  ourselves.  Because  they 
tamely  submitted,  in  former  ages,  to  despotic 
kings  and  rulers,  shall  we  invite  foreign  mon- 
archs  to  extend  their  dominion  over  us?  It 
was  "while  men  slept"  that  the  enemy  sowed 


8 


PAST  AND   FUTURE. 


his  tares ;  and  it  is  while  the  citizens  of  a 
country  are  neglectful  of  their  rights,  and  too 
implicitly  confide  in  the  vigilance  and  integri- 
ty of  their  public  servants,  that  principles  fatal 
to  civil  liberty  have  been  introduced. 

The  divine  right  of  kings,  the  political 
creed  of  olden  times,  was  a  doctrine  which  re- 
garded the  great  mass  of  mankind  as  created 
merely  to  subserve  the  interests  of  their  rulers ; 
as  abject  beasts  of  burden,  doomed  to  fight 
their  battles  and  toil  in  their  service,  without 
having  a  voice  in  making  the  laws  by  which 
they  were  governed,  and  for  the  slightest  in- 
fringment  of  which  they  were  liable  to  be  se- 
verely punished.  Bare  existence  was  then  re- 
garded as  a  blessing,  and  the  Lord's  anointed, 
the  vicegerent  of  the  Most  High,  affected  to 
possess  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  his 
subjects  ! 

After  the  lapse  of  ages,  a  better  order  of 
things  was  introduced,  and  men  began  to  think 
that  they  were  formed  for  a  nobler  purpose 
than  to  be  slaves  to  kings  and  despots.  Self-, 
government  was  found  to  be  practicable,  which 
recognizes  men  in  office  not  as  rulers,  but  simply 
as  servants  of  the  people,  and  as  such,  neces- 
sarily responsible  to  the  people  for  the  manner 


PAST  AND   FUTURE. 


in  which  they  discharge  the  duties  confided  to 
their  care. 

Such  a  government  can  be  maintained  only 
by  free  discussion;  by  securing  to  every  one 
the  freedom  of  speech  and  the  liberty  of  the 
press,  the  two  main  props  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  Eelying,  therefore,  on  the  fact  that  in 
this  country,  these  great  fundamental  rights  of 
man  are  clearly  defined  and  duly  appreciated, 
no  further  apology  will  be  offered  for  the  free- 
dom of  expression  which  may  characterize  the 
following  remarks,  in  which  all  reflections  of 
a  personal  character  will  be  carefully  avoided, 
as  every  way  objectionable,  being  wrong  in  it- 
self and  irrelevant  to  the  subject  before  us. 

We  shall  promise,  then,  that  all  civil  gov- 
ernments should  be  organized  with  reference 
to  the  interests  of  the  governed ;  to  bless  and 
benefit  the  people,  and  to  elevate  man  physic- 
ally, morally,  and  socially,  to  the  highest  point 
of  perfection  of  which  he  is  susceptible  in  the 
present  life. 

That  such  should  be  the  primary  object  in 
organizing  a  government,  and  the  method  adop- 
ted in  subsequent  legislation,  cannot  be  called 
in  question  in  a  country  where  the  prosperity 
of  the  people  is  the  governing  motive ;  and  just 
so  far  as  civil  government  tends  to  promote 


10  PAST  AND  FUTURE. 

this  result,  does  it  subserve  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  instituted. 

How  far  civil  government  has  hitherto  pro- 
moted this  object,  must  be  left  to  philosophers 
and  political  economists  to  determine. 

If  we  throw  a  retrospective  glance  on  the 
past,  and  review  the  history  of  nations,  some 
of  which  have  long  ceased  to  exist,  we  shall 
find,  that  just  so  far  as  the  voice  of  the  people 
prevailed,  in  that  exact  ratio  did  the  rights  of 
man  prevail  and  flourish. 

Athens,  once  the  pride  of  ancient  Greece, 
was  a  democracy;  a  government  in  which 
every  adult  citizen  participated  in  the  work  of 
legislation  and  the  administration  of  the  laws. 
Under  this  most  liberal  form  of  government, 
the  city  flourished  and  became  the  seat  of  civ- 
ilization and  refinement.  But  this  famous  city, 
the  home  of  so  many  orators  and  statesmen, 
where  Demosthenes  poured  forth  torrents  of 
impassioned  eloquence  in  defence  of  civil  lib- 
erty, and  where  the  Apostle  Paul  proclaimed 
the  unknown  God,  has  long  since  been  robbed 
of  her  liberty,  and  exists  now  only  in  the  glory 
of  the  past. 

But  this  form  of  Government,  whatever  may 
have  been  its  peculiar  advantages,  was  not 
adapted  to  countries  of  great  extent,  and  could 


PAST  AND   FUTURE.  11 

be  applied  with  the  best  results  only  in  cities 
and  inconsiderable  states  and  territories. 
Hence  the  origin  of  delegation,  by  means  of 
which  the  great  body  of  the  people  can  accom- 
plish, by  their  delegates,  that  which  distance 
and  other  circumstances  prevent  them  from  ac- 
complishing in  person. 

Ancient  Rome  was,  in  substance,  a  govern- 
ment of  this  description,  a  Republic ;  but  gen- 
erally, unduly  influenced  by  the  military,  pop- 
ular generals  and  military  chieftains  bore  too 
great  a  sway,  and  liberty,  after  languishing  for 
a  time  under  various  forms  of  government,  at 
length  yielded  to  the  encroachments  of  despot- 
ism. And,  in  casting  our  eyes  over  Europe  at 
the  present  time,  how  much  of  this  despotism 
of  barbarous  ages  still  remains,  as  a  memento 
of  the  past ! 

Russia,  Austria,  Italy,  and  most  of  the  other 
kingdoms  of  Europe,  are  still  governed  by  the 
force  of  arms.  The  "  Vox  Populi  Vox  Dei,^' 
is  yet  regarded  as  rank  blasphemy  and  impiety, 
when  attempted  to  be  applied  by  the  people  to 
the  purposes  of  self  government;  and  the  ghost 
of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  is  continually 
made  to  re-appear,  by  base  flatterers  and  syco- 
phants, who  seek  only  their  own  advancement. 
In  these  unhappy  countries,  the  press  is  fet- 


12  PAST  AND   FUTURE. 

tered,  and  civil  and  religious  liberty  are  un- 
known, or  only  partially  enjoyed,  under  nu- 
merous and  mortifying  restrictions.  In  limited 
monarchies,  such  for  example  as  England  and 
Prussia,  together  with  some  of  the  minor  gov- 
ernments on  the  continent,  a  better  state  of 
things  is  presented  to  our  view;  but  it  is  only 
in  America  that  civil  liberty  is  enjoyed  in  the 
fullest  extent. 

Of  all  the  nations  on  which  the  sun  shines, 
the  American  Republic  is  the  only  government 
in  which  liberty  is  well  understood  ;  the  only 
country  in  which  the  people  possess  the  gov- 
erning power,  and  are  able  to  control  their  pub- 
lic servants. 

In  this  highly  favored  country,  the  sacred 
deposit  of  liberty  is  confided  to  the  custody  of 
the  people;  and  so  long  as  they  continue  to 
feel  the  weight  of  responsibility  which  rests 
upon  them,  it  will  (humanl}'  speaking)  be  im- 
possible for  any  earthly  power  to  wrest  it  from 
their  giant  grasp. 

Having  glanced  at  some  of  the  nations  of 
Europe,  and  noticed  briefly  the  despotism  • 
which  still  exists  in  most  of  them,  we  may, 
perhaps,  be  permitted  to  dwell  for  a  little  while 
in  pleasing  anticipations  in  reference  to  the 
rising  greatness  of  this  wonderful  country,  (for 


PAST  AND   FUTURE.  13 

such  it  undoubtedly  is)  in  which  our  lot  is 
cast. 

But  where  shall  we  begin?  The  most  su- 
perficial view  of  this  great  government,  so  vast 
in  extent,  and  so  replete  with  benefits  and  ad- 
vantages of  every  kind,  assumes  the  form  of 
fiction,  rather  than  that  of  sober  reality. 

As  this  great  republic  is  in  advance  of  every 
other  government  in  point  of  civil  and  social 
privileges,  so  also  are  her  material  advantages 
of  a  vastly  superior  character.  A  country 
washed  by  two  mighty  oceans,  and  comprising 
within  its  spacious  limits  ev^ery  variety  of  soil 
and  climate,  and  capable  of  yielding  the  pro- 
ducts of  every  land  on  the  globe,  whose  laws 
are  made  not  to  suit  the  convenience  or  protect 
the  rights  and  interests  of  the  few,  but  to  bless 
and  benefit  all  the  people ;  that  all  may  enjoy, 
as  far  as  circumstances  will  permit,  equal 
rights  and  privileges^  and  ultimately  become 
as  happy,  intelligent,  and  prosperous,  as  good 
government  and  liberal  institutions  can  make 
them,  is  truly  worthy  of  our  admiration. 

Shall  America,  then,  on  which  the  eyes  of 
all  nations  are  turned  with  admiration — shall 
this  great,  free,  and  glorious  republic  continue 
to  increase  in  every  element  of  national  great- 
ness, until  the  powers  of  the  human  intellect 


14  PAST  AND  FUTURE. 

shall  become  fully  developed  and  applied  to 
every  liberal  and  praise-worthy  enterprise  cal- 
culated to  elevate  this  nation  above  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth — until  other  nations  shall 
emulate  her  glory,  and  imbibe  her  spirit,  and 
light  the  sacred  torch  of  liberty  at  her  altars  ? 
Shall  all  these  bright  anticipations  of  her  fu- 
ture greatness  be  fully  realized,  or  shall  some 
unexpected  calamity  occur  to  prevent  her  on- 
ward march — some  dark  and  foreboding  cloud 
arise  in  her  political  horizon,  to  exclude  these 
fond  hopes  ? 

In  a  word,  shall  America  be  permitted  to 
transmit  her  laws  and  institutions  to  the  latest 
posterity;  and  when  revision  and  maturity 
shall  have  given  them  an  excellence  and  per- 
fection of  character,  which  shall  recommend 
them  to  distant  nations,  will  no  bitterness  be 
mingled  with  them  at  the  fountain  head — will 
the  source  still  continue  pure  ? 

Americans  live  and  legislate,  it  should  be 
remembered,  not  merely  for  the  present,  but  for 
the  future  ;  not  for  this  republic,  or  continent, 
but  for  the  whole  world :  for  wherever  this  • 
country  is  known,  the  world  over,  the  influ- 
ence of  its  institutions  will  be  appreciated — 
will  exert  a  mighty  influence.  Preserve  invio- 
late this  migjjty  union  of  sovereign  independent 


PAST  AND   FUTURE.  15 

States,  and  let  that  wisdom  characterize  the 
legislation  of  the  future^  which  has  left  its 
glorious  and  indelible  impress  o?i  the  past;  and 
the  sacred  influence  of  her  power  for  good,  will 
be  felt  hj  millions  in  the  old  world,  and  des- 
pots will  tremble  on  their  thrones,  and  the 
galling  chains  of  nations  wull  be  snapped 
asunder  by  her  magic  touch.  These  are  con- 
siderations which  interest  alike  the  philanthro- 
pist and  the  statesman — a  subject  in  which  we 
are  deeply  and  equally  concerned. 

Let  us  once  more  inquire,  from  what  quar- 
ter are  we  to  look  for  that  principle  of  oppo- 
sition calculated  to  endanger  the  fair  fabric  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  erected  on  this  con- 
tinent?—  a  monument,  reared  by. the  hands, 
and  cemented  by  the  blood  of  patriots  and 
warriors,  who  now  slumber  in  the  dust !  Are 
we  to  look  for  cause  of  alarm,  to  that  differ- 
ence of  opinion^  growing  out  of  the  long  fo- 
mented bickerings  between  the  two  extremities 
of  the  union?  We  unhesitatingly  answer,  no; 
for  the  citizens  of  this  great  and  free  republic 
appreciate  too  fully  the  inseparable  connection 
between  liberty  and  union,  to  admit  of  alarm 
arising  from  this  quarter.  The  great  body  of 
the  people  possess  too  much  virtue,  intelligence, 
and  love  of  country,  to  permit  the  overthrow 


16  PAST  AND   FUTURE. 

of  liberty  from  causes  like  these.  They  know 
that  the  eyes  of  foreign  despots  are  fixed  upon 
them,  who  would  exult  at  witnessing  their 
family  quarrels,  their  internal  strifes  and  ani- 
mosities. Moreover,  they  have  wise  and  dis- 
tinguished statesmen  in  their  Senate,  who,  by 
their  patriotism  and  wisdom,  have  allayed,  from 
time  to  time,  those  storms  of  passion  arising 
from  prejudice  and  sectional  interests,  which 
seemed  to  threaten  the  safety  of  the  union ;  on 
the  preservation  of  which,  under  God,  the  in- 
creasing prosperity  of  this  great  country  and 
nation  mainly  depends. 

Still  there  exists  but  two  much  cause  for 
alarm,  but  in  another  direction.  It  cannot  and 
should  not  be  dissembled,  that  in  the  nature 
and  organization  of  the  Romish  Church,  with 
all  the  modified  influences  under  which  it  ex- 
ists in  this  country,  there  is  cause  for  alarm  to 
our  free  institutions.  If  infant  liberty  was 
crushed  in  Italy  by  French  bayonets,  at  the 
solicitation  of  the  Pope  ;  why  may  not  a  simi- 
lar course  be  attempted,  at  some  future  period, 
in  America?  Romanism  diflfers,  most  widely 
and  essentially  diflfers,  from  every  other  reli- 
gious system  in  this,  that  it  owes  undying  and 
eternal  allegiance  to  a  foreign  sovereign  ! 

The  English,  or  other  European  Protestant, 


PAST  AND   FUTURE.  17 

on  reaching  these  shores,  can  renounce  ex  ani- 
mo,  in  sincerity  and  with  the  entire  approba- 
tion of  his  conscience,  all  allegiance  to  his  for- 
mer sovereign;  and  this  in  spiritual  as  well  as 
in  civil  matters ;  but  not  so  the  Romish  immi- 
grant from  Italy  or  Austria,  from  Spain  or  Ire- 
land, or  any  other  part  of  the  world.  The 
papal  yoke  is  on  his  neck,  and  hear  it  he  must 
all  the  days  of  his  life.  The  christian  is  de- 
clared by  St.  Paul  to  be  the  free  man  of 
Christ,  but  the  Roman  Catholic  is  emphatic- 
ally the  Pope's  hond-man.  As  the  spiritual 
vassal  of  this  great  sovereign  prince,  every  Ro- 
manist is  bound,  at  all  hazards,  and  in  every 
portion  of  the  w^orld,  to  do  his  bidding.  His 
tribunal  is  regarded  by  all  his  devout  follow- 
ers as  an  unerring  tribunal,  where  all  doubt- 
ful points  are  rendered  clear,  and  the  path  of 
duty  and  the  dogmas  of  religion  are  made 
equally  plain  to  all  his  spiritual  subjects.  He 
speaks,  and  it  is  done ;  he  commands,  and  it 
stands  fast ;  unless,  perchance,  it  should  be  re- 
voked by  some  succeeding  pontiff,  who,  in  the 
plenitude  of  his  newly  acquired  infallibility, 
may  feel  disposed  to  brush  off  the  act  of  his 
infallible  predecessor,  thus  demonstrating  that 
the  living  infallibility  is  to  be  preferred  to  the 
dead.     In  the  opinion  of  his  devoted  subjects, 


18  FAST  AND   FUTURE. 

his  commands  have  the  force  of  decrees;  and 
his  decree  is  supposed  to  be  ratified  in  heaven, 
believed  in  and  submitted  to  on  earth,  and 
dreaded  in  hell !  So  great  and  terrible  is  the 
power  of  the  Pope ! 

We  do  not,  at  the  present  time,  notice  these 
extravagant  pretensions  of  the  papacy  in  their 
reference  to  religious  faith,  but  only  as  they 
may  affect  civil  liberty  in  this  country.  The 
question  is  not  v/hat  extravagant  notions  men, 
professing  a  belief  in  the  supremacy  of  the 
Pope,  may  see  fit  to  attribute  to  this  august 
personage,  but  how  far  such  a  belief  may  af- 
fect Roman  Catholics,  in  their  civil  relations 
to  the  government  of  this  republic.  It  is  not 
in  telling  his  beads,  or  saying  his  prayers  in  an 
unknown  tongue,  that  w^e  would  object  to  the 
Romanist ;  this  is  an  inalienable  right,  which 
he  enjoys  in  common  with  every  other  Ameri- 
can citizen;  but  the  great  question  which 
forces  itself  upon  our  mind  is,  can  he  bear  un- 
shackled allegiance  to  the  constitution  and  gov- 
ernment of  this  republic,  while  he  owes  alle- 
giance to  a  foreign  sovereign?  This  is  a 
point  on  which  much  indeed  has  been  written 
and  said,  but  we  confess  that,  to  our  mind,  it 
has  never  been  made  clear ;  and  we  have  se- 
cret misgivings  that  it  is  impossible  to  remove 


PAST  AND  FUTURE.  19 

that  objection  which  attaches  to  this  double  or 
twofold  citizenship,  of  which  we  are  now  treat- 
ing. 

The  papacy  has  always  checked  the  prog- 
ress of  civilization  in  every  country  where  its 
blighting  and  withering  influence  has  been  felt. 
Like  a  stream  of  lava,  rushing  down  the  side 
of  Vesuvius  or  Mount  ^Etna,  it  has  rolled  over 
the  fair  land  of  Italy,  sweeping  away  every 
thing  valuable  in  its  desolating  course.  The 
people  of  beautiful  Italy,  who  inhabit  a  coun- 
try blessed  with  a  soil  so  fertile  and  kindly  in 
quality  as  to  be  capable  of  yielding  annually 
two  harvests,  are,  by  the  oppressions  and  ex- 
actions of  their  despotic  rulers,  reduced  to  the 
most  abject  condition  of  distress.  If  the  pa- 
pacy could  be  shown  to  be  favorable  to  liberty 
and  progress  in  the  useful  arts,  in  no  other 
country  should  we  expect  to  find  them  in  a  state 
of  greater  perfection  than  in  Italy,  the  garden 
of  Europe,  and  once  mistress  of  the  world ; 
but,  alas  !  how  has  the  mighty  fallen  !  Italy 
may  still  boast  of  her  clear,  blue  skies,  her 
sunny  fields,  her  delicious  fruits,  and  the  re- 
mains of  her  gorgeous  palaces  and  temples,  now 
crumbling  into  dust,  but  in  vain  shall  we  look 
within  her  borders  for  a  free,  educated,  and 
prosperous  people,  to  improve  the  natural  ad- 


PAST  AND  FUTURE. 


vantages  of  their'"country.  The  numerous  ad- 
vantages of  soil,  and  clime,  and  sunny  skies, 
avail  them  not;  a  dark  cloud  hangs  over  this 
fair  land,  and  obscures  their  brightest  hopes. 
A  non-producing  class  of  men  have  monopo- 
lized all  her  sources  of  wealth,  and,  like 
swarms  of  locusts,  have  devoured  every  green 
thing  in  the  land.* 

Poor  Italy  is  a  down-trodden  and  a  priest- 
ridden  country,  where  commerce  and  agricul- 
ture, and  the  useful  arts,  exist  in  their  most 
feeble  condition;  and  painting  and  sculpture, 
their  only  remaining  boast,  had  shared  a  simi- 
lar fate,  had  they  not  been  required  to  beautify 
and  embellish  the  gorgeous  churches,  the  erec- 
tion of  which,  together  with  the  maintenance 
of  the  priesthood,  absorbed  the  wealth  of  the 
land,  steeped  the  people  in  ignorance  and  pov- 
erty, and  shrouded  the  minds  of  men  in  darkness 


*In  the  city  of  Eome,  which  contains  170,384  in- 
habitants, there  are  34  bishops,  1,240  secular  priests, 
1,892  regular  priests,  and  1,467  monks. 

The  above  note  is  inserted  as  it  recently  appeared  in 
one  of  the  most  respectable  public  journals  of  this  city, 
making  the  grand  total  of  priests  and  monks,  regular 
and  secular,  4,633  !  and  should  we  add  to  this  large 
supply  of  male  clergy,  3,000  female  assistants,  and 
probably  the  figure  is  not  too  high,  we  have  the  as- 
tounding sum  of  7,633  of  this  non-producing  class, 
men  and  women,  in  the  eternal  city  alone. 


PAST  AND  FUTURE.  21 

more  dense  than  that  which  once  rested  on 
the  land  of  Egypt. 

Although  traces  of  the  fine  arts  still  remain 
in  the  land,  monuments  to  the  memories  of  her 
former  painters  and  sculptors,  her  living  artists 
cease  to  produce  specimens  which  even  approx- 
imate to  the  excellence  which  characterized  the 
productions  of  their  predecessors.  Having 
long  since  completed  the  portraits  of  the  virgin 
and  the  saints,  and  exhausted  all  the  subjects  in 
the  calendar,  the  brush  has  passed  from  their 
hands  into  that  of  our  brilliant  West ;  and  Ca- 
nova  having  closed  the  catalogue  of  her  sculp- 
tors, has  yielded  the  palm  of  glory  to  our  own 
immortal  Powers  ! 

Italy,  a  land  so  highly  favored  by  the  great 
creator  in  physical  advantages,  shouldexhibit 
the  largest  amount  of  happiness  of  any  country 
in  Europe,  or  perhaps  in  the  world. 

Private  judgment  has  been  carefully  guarded 
against,  and  "  all  false  doctrine,  heresy,  and 
schism,"  hitherto  excluded  from  Italy.  The 
head  of  the  church  has  also  been  head  of  the 
government.  Where,  then,  according  to  Ro- 
man Catholic  calculation,  could  we  expect  to 
find  so  large  an  amount  of  prosperity,  national 
and  individual,  as  in  that  country  ?  The  gen- 
uine fruits  of  the  Romish  religion,  if  anywhere 


22  PAST  AND  FUTURE. 

on  earth,  might  be  expected  to  exist,  in  their 
greatest  perfection,  in  this  land,  unmarked  by 
the  footsteps  of  heretics  or  schismatics,  and  en'\ 
circling  the  throne  of  Infallihility  I  What, 
then,  are  its  fruits  ?  Poverty,  oppression,  and 
ignorance  !  But  the  bitterest  fruit  which  it 
produces  is,  depression  of  the  immortal  mind 
of  man !     Here  the  iron  enters  into  the 

SOUL  ! 

The  proud  despot  of  Eussia  can  send  a  man 
to  the  frozen  wilds  of  Siberia ;  but  once  there, 
the  exile  may  muse  at  pleasure  on  the  cruel  and 
arbitrary  policy  which  sent  him  hither;  but 
the  slave  of  Romanism  enjoys  no  such  privi- 
lege. The  Russian  exile  can  at  least  enjoy 
freedom  of  thought.  The  emperor  cannot  en- 
ter within  his  breast  and  detect  what  is  passing 
there,  or  denounce  it  as  treason  "  against  his 
crown  and  dignity;"  but  what  the  emperor 
cannot  do  the  priest  can.  He  can  enter  into 
the  soul  of  his  subject,  and  scrutinize  his 
thoughts  and  emotions,  and  scan  his  purposes 
and  designs  ;  arraigning  him  from  time  to  time 
before  his  tribunal,  and  directing  the  channel 
through  which  his  very  thoughts  must  flow  ! 
Is  this  a  system  friendly  to  liberty  ?  If  this  be 
liberty,  what,  I  ask,  is  despotism  ? 


PAST   AND   FUTURE.  23 

The  serf  of  Romanism  does  not  even  enjoy 
the  liberty  of  thought  ! 

The  pure  religion  of  Christ  is  calculated  to 
make  the  wilderness  bud  and  blossom  like  the 
rose,  while  Romanism  transforms  the  fertile 
field  into  a  desert. 

This  grasping  power  has  always  shown  it- 
self to  be  the  enemy  of  education,  so  far  as 
the  masses  are  concerned. 

Romanism  has  uniformly  placed  the  candle 
"under  a  bushel,"  and  confined  learning  and 
science,  as  much  as  possible,  within  the  walls 
of  the  monastery  and  the  convent. 

Under  the  control  of  this  despotic  power, 
the  Bible  is  not  the  only  sealed  hook  which 
has  no  meaning  of  its  own,  but  by  its  notes  and 
glosses  must  speak  the  language  of  its  keepers. 
We  say  the  Bible  is  not  the  only  book,  nor 
theology  the  only  science,  doomed  to  such 
illiberal  restrictions  by  these  spiritual  guides. 
History,  philosophy,  and  political  economy, 
are  all,  in  Roman  Catholic  countries,  subject 
to  the  control  of  the  ruling  Church — are  all 
liable  to  fall  under  the  ban  of  this  spiritual 
embargo  ! 

Rome  attempted  to  control  the  motion  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  by  the  action  of  canon  law, 
and   sent   the   astronomer   Galilio   to   prison. 


24  PAST  AND  FUTURE. 

merely   for   asserting    that   the    earth   moved 
around  the  sun. 

Even  language  was  regarded  as  identified 
with  heresy,  particularly  the  Greek,  which 
Bishops,  sometimes,  were  pleased  to  call  "a 
heretical  language.'^ 

These  were  the  palmy  days  of  popery,  the 
golden  age  of  the  Church,  when  priestcraft 
bore  sway  and  triumphed  over  the  intellect  of 
man! 

The  learning  of  those  times  flourished,  as 
before  remarked,  within  the  w^alls  of  the  con- 
vent and  the  precincts  of  the  cloister,  locked 
up  in  unknown  language,  translations  of  which 
were  prohibited  to  be  made  and  read,  under 
pain  of  excommunication;  a  word  which,  in 
those  times  of  darkness,  carried  with  it  far 
greater  terror  than  at  the  present  day,  when  the 
thunder  of  the  Vatican  creates  little  or  no 
alarm. 

Even  during  the  late  reign  of  Gregory  XVI, 
progress  was  vigorously  opposed.  Railroads 
and  factories,  and  any  additional  activity  or 
advancement,  were  regarded  with  suspicion. 

These  remarks  hold  good,  with  some  modi- 
fication, it  may  be,  wherever  popery  is  in  the 
ascendant  in  Spain,  Portugal,  Sardinia,  Sicily, 
Naples,  and  every  other  country  under  the  in- 


PAST  AND   FUTURE.  25 

fluence  of  this  power.  But  of  all  countries 
which  have  groaned  under  the  weight  of  this 
incubus,  none  have  suffered  so  severely  as  that 
bright  gem  of  the  ocean,  [reland,  the  land  of 
orators  and  poets,  where  the  human  intellect, 
unchained,  soars  aloft,  and  exults  in  deeds  of 
valor  and  patriotism. 

Under  the  combined  influence  of  English 
misrule  and  Romish  superstition,  the  most  as- 
tounding evils  have  been  inflicted  on  this  un- 
happy country.  The  great  body  of  the  people, 
uninstructed  in  learning  and  the  science  of  civil 
government,  became  an  easy  prey  to  those  who 
found  their  account  in  plundering  them  of  their 
property  and  legal  rights. 

If,  in  this  work  of  spoliation,  the  English 
government  took  the  lead,  by  imposing  on  them 
heavy  burdens,  in  the  shape  of  taxes  and  tithes, 
for  the  support  of  the  government  and  the  na- 
tional Church,  the  landlords  and  the  priests 
completed  the  work  of  destruction,  by  scraping 
into  their  coffers  what  the  former  exactors  had 
left  behind. 

A  million  of  human  beings  blotted  from  the 
page  of  existence  in  one  island  by  the  frightful 
death  of  famine  in  three  years,  is  an  event 
which  a  nation  of  the  same  numerical  strength 
perhaps  never  before  experienced.     It  is  truly 


26 


PAST  AND   FUTURE. 


heart-rending  to  dwell  on  a  scene  of  such  des- 
olating misery ;  yet  all  this  distress  may  be 
charged  to  the  account  of  Romanism,  as  its 
grand  agent  and  primary  cause. 

Popery  and  monarchy  paved  the  way  for  the 
introduction  of  that  train  of  effects  which 
worked  such  unparalleled  mischief  in  this  un- 
happy country — this  congenial  pair  prepared 
the  way  for  that  complication  of  evils  which 
fell  with  such  crushing  weight  on  this  ill  fated 
and  unhappy  land.  The  great  body  of  the 
people,  long  unused  to  reflection  and  patier.t 
thought,  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  educa- 
tion, and  unskilled  in  the  arts  of  life,  suffered 
their  governors,  temporal  and  spiritual,  to  be- 
come their  masters,  and  ultimately  the  destroy- 
ers of  their  lives. 

And  thus  it  has  ever  been,  and  it  ever  will  be 
the  case,  that  where  learning  declines  among 
the  masses,  tyranny  will  take  its  place  ;  for 
where  the  people  will  not  think  for  themselves, 
or  are  too  indolent  and  ignorant  to  do  so,  there 
will  always  be  found  at  hand  those  who  will 
think  and  act  for  them  :  but  it  should  be  borne 
in  mind  that  they  will  also  be  paid /or  this  la- 
bor  of  love.  They  will  filch  from  the  people 
their  rights  and  liberties ;  this  will  be  the 
dear-bought   compensation    which  alone    will 


PAST  AND   FUTURE.  27 

compensate  these  choice  spirits  for  their  devo- 
tion to  the  dear  people.     ^ 

Liberty  must  be  guarded  by  eternal  vigilance 
—by  untiring  labor  and  industry  ;  and  no  peo- 
ple can  be  accounted  worthy  to  enjoy  its  bless- 
ings, who  are  unwilling  to  share  in  the  cares 
and  toils  necessary  to  its  preservation.  When 
gross  darkness  had  long  covered  the  earth,  day 
dawned  in  the  Morning  of  the  Reformation  ! 
As  the  chains  fell  from  the  Apostle  Peter  at 
the  bidding  of  the  Angel,  so  were  the  heavier 
fetters  of  the  human  race  burst  asunder  bp  that 
power  which  attended  the  Reformation !  The 
human  mind,  chained  and  bound  and  pressed 
down  to  the  dust  by  Papal  oppressors  and  Ec- 
clesiastical Tyrants,  awoke  then  from  its  slum- 
bering trance  of  ages,  to  assert  and  claim  its  in- 
herent and  heaven-born  rights  ;  among  the  very 
first  of  which,  is  that  right  of  every  one,  to 
think  and  act  for  himself! 

And  this,  I  take  it,  constitutes  the  prominent 
and  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  Reform- 
ation :  the  exercise  of  Private  Judgment^  in 
opposition  to  the  unqualified  Dictum  of  the 
Church !  It  was  this  principle,  so  long  dor- 
mant, but  now  roused  to  activity^  which  gave 
that  impetus  to  progress^  which  remains  to  the 


28  PAST  AND   FUTURE. 

present  time,  and  will,  in  all  probability  con- 
tinue, should  we  prove  faithful  to  our  trust,  till 
time  shall  be  no  longer. 

While,  previously  to  the  dawn  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, the  intellect  of  man  was  held  in  lead- 
ing-strings ;  civilization,  and  those  arts  which 
result  from  the  expansion  of  intellect  were  in 
their  infancy,  such  of  them  as  were  then  born  ; 
and  long  would  they,  in  all  human  probability 
have  continued  in  a  state  of  protracted  child- 
hood or  stultified  minority,  but  for  the  light 
which  broke  in  upon  the  world  at  that  eventful 
period. 

And  -what  can  be  so  pleasing  to  the  Philan- 
thropist, as  to  trace  the  mental  and  material 
progress,  resulting  from  this  great  moral  eman- 
cipation ;  the  progress  of  learning  and  science, 
of  material  comfort  and  civilization,  which 
have  sprung  up  in  all  lands,  visited  by  those 
pure  streams,  then  bursting  forth  in  all  their 
pristine  purity  and  svv^eetness,  and  carrying  with 
them,  into  all  countries,  through  which  they 
flowed,  every  blessing  which  could  be  enjoyed 
or  secured  by  the  joint  action  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty. 

And  here,  since  objects  strike  the  mind  most 
forcibly,  and  leave  the  most  lasting  impression 


PAST  AND  FUTURE.  29 

when  placed  in  contrast,  it  may  be  well  to 
place  in  this  manner,  those  countries  which  en- 
joyed the  light  of  the  Reformation,  with  those 
still  under  the  dominion  of  Popery, — which 
still  remain  under  the  shadow  of  papal  darkness 
and  despotism,  being  "fast  bound  in  misery 
and  iron". 

Take  for  example  the  ancient  and  extensive 
kingdom  of  Spain,  and  contrast  it  with  these 
independent  and  sovereign  States  of  America, 
touching  civil  and  religious  freedom  ;  and  the 
difference  is  almost  as  great,  as  between  mid- 
night and  noonday. 

In  Italy,  Spain  and  Portugal,  the  liberty  of 
speech  and  the  freedom  of  the  Press,  and  the 
rights  of  man,  are  utterly  denied  ;  or  at  best  so 
narrowed  dowm  and  circumscribed,  as'  scarcely 
to  be  worthy  the  name ;  while  in  this  happy 
land  they  are  enjoyed  to  the  fullest  extent,  and 
secured  to  every  citizen  by  the  Constitution. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  material  pro- 
gress which  has  followed  the  Eeformation ; 
wherever  it  has  spread,  it  has  stamped  this 
great  feature  of  its  character  on  our  own 
Country  ! 

A  hasty  glance  at  some  of  the  cities  of  this 
Union  will  fully  illustrate  this  point. 


so  PAST  AND  FUTURE. 

Detroit,  nearly  as  old  as  Philadelphia,  long 
remained  an  insignificant  village  or  depot  for 
hunters ;  and  until  the  war  of  1814,  which 
paved  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  Protest- 
ant influence  and  activity  gave  little  hope  of 
future  expansion :  since  that  period  however  it 
has  grown  up  into  a  City,  containing  a  large 
and  flourishing  population. 

The  same  remark  holds  good  when  applied 
to  New  Orleans,  St.  Louis,  and  Cincinnati ; 
it  is  by  the  joint  influence  of  capital  and  intel- 
ligence, aided  by  the  great  motive  power  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking,  that  these  fair 
cities  have  attained  their  present  importance. 

We  might  further  notice  in  this  place,  that 
the  great  body  of  English  literature  has  been 
the  result  of  the  Reformation ;  Shakespeare 
and  Milton,  Thompson  and  Cowper  and  Watts  5 
and  a  long  list  of  Poets,  too  numerous  to  men- 
tion, have  sprung  up  since  the  glorious  Reform*, 
ation,  to  breathe  sweet  music  into  the  soul  of 
man ;  while  Addison,  Johnson  and  Swift, 
and  a  host  of  essayists,  of  orators,  historians 
and  statesmen  have  appeared^  both  in  the  old 
world  and  in  the  new,  to  enrich  our  literature 
and  language,  and  to  refine  and  elevate  society 
by  their  productions*  Indeed  there  is  scarcely 
a  book  in  the  English  language  worth  reading, 


FAST  AND   FUTURE.  31 

that  has  not  been  written  since  the  Reformation, 
Man  must  be  free  before  he  can  make  desirable 
proficiency  in  any  science  or  art :  the  mind 
scorns  to  remain  bound  and  fettered,  and  utterly 
refuses  to  act  under  the  influence  of  coercion  or 
dictation ;  suitable  training  and  a  right  direc- 
tion is  all  that  it  requires  ;  which  leads  me  to 
that  topic,  most  worthy  of  our  consideration  in 
a  treatise  on  civil  Liberty,  to  point  out  the  best 
method  of  preserving  unimpaired,  this  inestim- 
able blessing. — As  ignorance  has  ever  been  the 
mother  of  superstition,  so,  by  parity  of  reason- 
ing we  may  infer,  other  things  being  equal, 
that  learning  and  enlightenment  will  produce 
freedom  of  thought,  and  all  the  attendant  bless- 
ings and  benefits  of  well  ordered  society. 

A  sound  education  for  youth  is  the  first  step 
which  should  engage  the  attention  of  parents 
and  lesjislators. 

Superior  institutions  will  never  be  wanting, 
to  which  the  children  of  the  wealthy  or  com- 
paratively wealthy  can  resort  for  instruction ; 
but  the  blessings  flowing  from  the  general  dif- 
fusion of  education  are  so  numerous,  that  exer- 
tions should  be  made  to  extend  it  to  every  child 
in  the  land.  Every  one  should  be  taught,  not 
merely  the  rudiments  of  his  language,  but 
should  be  instructed  in  all  the  solid  and  useful 


32  PAST   AND    FUTUHE. 

branches  of  education.  Hence  the  necessity 
for  District  or  common  schools,  to  aid  so  im- 
portant an  enterprize  ;  these  institutions,  since 
they  are  designed  for  the  benefit  of  all,  it  is 
only  reasonable  that  they  should  receive  the 
support  of  all.  Every  man  should  be  called 
upon  by  the  public  authority,  to  contribute  his 
share,  in  proportion  to  his  means,  to  establish 
such  nurseries  of  learning  in  every  hamlet  or 
neighborhood  in  the  land. 

As  our  civil  Liberty  was  at  first  secured  by 
joint  effort,  so  can  the  general  diflfusion  of  edu- 
cation be  most  effectually  promoted  in  like 
manner.  It  was  by  pulling  together,  without 
regard  to  sect  or  party  in  politics  or  religion, 
that  our  patriotic  forefathers  secured  for 
their  descendants  the  invaluable  blessings  of 
liberty  and  independence  ;  and  it  is  only  by 
acting  in  concert  in  advancing  the  scarcely 
less  valuable  cause  of  general  education,  that 
we  can  hope  to  secure  the  largest  amount  of 
success  in  this  great  undertaking. 

''  United  toe  stand,''  was  the  motto  then,  the 
same  union  of  strength  is  necessary  to  success 
now,  in  extending  the  benefits  of  popular  edu- 
cation. The  means  provided  by  public  au- 
thority for  the  support  of  schools,  by  being  di- 
vided, would  be  frittered  away,  and  in  the  end 


PAST  AND   FUTURE.  33 

prove  nearly  useless;  particularly  would  this 
mark  be  found  to  apply  to  schools  in  the  coun- 
try, where  the  sparseness  of  the  population,  to- 
gether with  other  causes,  must  ever  prevent,  as 
a  general  rule,  more  than  one  School  in  the 
same  vicinity  or  School-District. 

Furthermore,  there  can  be  no  good  reason  as- 
signed for  such  a  subdivision  of  the  funds,  ap- 
propriated by  the  Legislature  for  the  support  of 
common  Schools ;  the  measure,  indeed,  is 
fraught  with  danger,  and  replete  with  mischief 
of  every  kind. 

The  peace  and  harmony  of  society  are  best 
promoted,  by  that  kind  and  friendly  commin- 
gling together  for  purposes  of  public  utility  of 
persons  maintaining,  on  minor  points,  some 
slight  diversity  of  opinion. 

Such  a  measure,  as  the  division  of  school 
funds,  provided  for  the  support  of  general  in- 
struction, if  carried  into  operation,  would  not 
only  interrupt  the  existence  of  this  friendly 
feeling,  but  would  also  annihilate  a  large 
'proportion  of  the  public  schools,  and  most 
probably  subject  great  numbers  to  the  mis- 
fortune of  being  brought  up  in  ignorance  ; 
or  might  be  the  means  of  placing  them  under 
such  influences,  as  would  prove  detrimental  to 
the  advancement  of  sound  education   and  the 


34  PAST  AND  FUTURE, 

diffusion  of  liberal  principles.  Evils  every 
way  injurious  both  to  the  community  and 
to  individuals.  "Divide  and  conquer"  is 
the  policy  of  an  influential  and  aspiring  class, 
*who  might  find  such  a  division  and  apportion- 
ment of  the  Public  School  funds  conducive  to 
the  consummation  of  their  ambitious  desis^ns. 

But  we  again  remark,  that  the  noblest  mon- 
ument which  can  be  erected  to  the  honor  of  the 
country,  is  an  intelligent  population !"  And 
since  the  great  masses  of  the  people  are  not 
privileged  with  the  advantages  held  out  by  the 
superior  schools  and  colleges,  the  standard  of 
education  should  be  elevated,  as  far  as  possible, 
in  the  district  or  common  schools ;  which 
should  be  made  accessible  to  every  child  within 
their  sphere  of  operation. 

The  District  Schools  should  never  be  re- 
garded as  common  in  the  sense  of  inferiority  ; 
but  only,  as  the  air  we  breathe,  and  the  water 
with  which  we  allay  our  thirst ;  in  every  other 
respect  they  should  be,  as  far  as  practicable, 
superior  schools  ;  for  the  blessings  and  bene- 
fits of  education,  like  light  and  air,  should,  be 
freely  enjoyed  by  every  one. 

We  have  already  hinted  at  the  general  in- 
convenience which  would  attend  the  distribu- 


PAST  AND  FUTURE.  35 

tion  of  the  school  funds,  as  respects  the  rural 
districts ;  we  might  here  add,  that  we  cannot  dis- 
cover any  counterbalancing  advantages  which 
would  result  from  the  measure. 

We  cannot  see  any  good  reason,  why  the 
children  of  Episcopalians,  Presbyterians,  Bap" 
tists  and  Methodists,  and  even  Romanists,  Ma«- 
homedans,  and  Pagans,  may  not  be  instructed 
in  the  same  school  or  college,  without  receiving 
the  slightest  injury  from  such  association. 

Besides,  there  is  no  keresy  or  schism  to  be 
found  in  Grammar,  Arithmetic,  Natural  His- 
tory, Geography,  or  in  the  higher  branches  of 
Mathematics,  Astronomy,  or  even  in  Greek  it- 
self ;  and  the  Latin  has  been  too  long  employed 
in  the  sacred  service  of  the  church,  to  be  feared 
by  any,  except  uneasy  spirits  or  demons.*) 

But  another  objection  made  to  this  friendly 
and  liberal  association  or  union  of  all  the  vari- 
ous denominations,  has  been  that  in  the  work 
of  education  the  denominational  views  of  each 
would  be  encroached  uppn,  or  unduly  influenced 
by  teachers   and  instructors.      This  objection 


*)  We  have,  as  we  believe,  a  well  authenticated  ac- 
count of  the  laying  of  a  spirit  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  M ,  Ro- 
man Priest  in  Patterson,  New  Jersey.  This  happened 
only  a  few  yeas  since. 

The  above  was  given  us  by  a  highly  respectable  clergy- 
man of  the  city  of  St.  Louis. 


36  PAST  AND   FUTURE. 

must  prove  groundless  when  we  remember  that 
under  the  parental  roof,  and  in  the  Sunday 
School,  an  abundant  opportunity  is  offered  for 
the  inculcation  of  religious  instruction,  in  that 
mrinner  most  pleasing  to  parents  and  guardians. 
Indeed  five  days  in  the  week,  are  amply  suf- 
ficient for  the  work  of  secular  instruction  ;  the 
remaining  two  may,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
parents,  l;e  devoted  to  such  a  system  of  re- 
ligious trai.iing  as  they  respectively  prefer. 

But  should  the  Bible  be  introduced  as  a 
text-book  in  schools  9 

The  introduction  of  this  book  of  books,  has 
been  made  one  of  the  principal  objections  to 
the  great  union  of  the  people  for  the  advance- 
ment of  education. 

If  admitted,  the  schools  are  pronounced  sec- 
tarian in  their  character' — if  excluded,  God- 
less and  Infidel  institutions  ! 

Jesuits  and  Romanists  in  general,  object 
alike,  on  both  views  of  the  subject,  to  that 
course,  ickich  alone  can  insure  the  largest 
amount  of  education  and  sound  instruction 
for  the  great  body  of  the  people  ! 

The  Bible  is  not  like  the  dogmas  of  men, 
calculated  often  to  mislead,  but  without  note 
or  comments  "  able  to  make  wise  unto  salva- 
tion " ;  and  besides  the  sacred  treasure  of  di- 


FAST  AND  FUTL'KE.  3? 

vine  truth,  of  which  it  is  the  bearerj  it  con* 
tains  the  most  ancient  and  interesting  history 
in  the  world— the  history  of  the  Creation,  and 
of  man,  the  lord  of  the  Creation.  The 
Prophets  and  the  Psalms  contain  poetry  never 
equalled  by  the  ingenuity  of  uninspired  man^ 
while  its  precepts  teach  us  lessons  of  mercy  and 
compassion  to  our  lellow  men,  under  every  ex- 
igency of  life.  Our  duty  to  God  and  our  duty 
to  our  neighbor,  are  there  most  distinctly 
taught,  and  yet  in  a  manner  free  of  all  sectarian 
bias. — . 

Who  then,  regarding  the  good  of  the  com* 
munity,  and  the  due  expansion  of  the  human 
intellect,  would  bar  our  this  book  from  schools 
and  other  institutions  of  learning  ? 

There  is  in  the  holy  Scriptures  enough  on 
which  all  denominations  are  fully  agreed,  to 
make  the  Bible  invaluable  to  them  ! 

But  the  objection  raised  to  the  admission  of 
the  Bible  into  schools,  is  attempted  to  be  put 
on  the  ground  of  the  faulty  or  incorrect  trans» 
lation  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  in  general  usa 
among  Protestants,  This  is  merely  an  evasion, 
on  the  part  of  Roman  Catholics,  v^ho  are  really 
opposed  to  the  distribution  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures among  the  people,  in  any  language  or 
translation,     And  in  their  schook  and  semi* 


38  PAST  AND  FUTURE. 

naries,  when  were  they  ever  known  to  teach  a 
boy  to  think  or  reason  independently  on  any 
subject,  whether  on  civil  liberty  or  religion? 
When,  and  to  whom  did  they  ever  put  the 
question  :  "  how  readest  thou,  or  how  thinkcst 
thou  ?  "  The  true  state  of  the  case  is,  that 
their  pupils  have  nothing  to  do  v/ith  thinking, 
except  as  per?nitted  by  their  spiritual  guides  ! 
Indeed  there  is  scarcely  anything  more  to  be 
deplored  than  that  of  introducing  sectarian  strife 
and  diversity  of  religious  teaching  and  opinion 
within  the  walls  of  the  District  or  common 
School.  The  country  expects  every  one  to  do 
his  duty  as  a  good  citizen ;  but  could  such  a 
narrow-minded  measure  be  made  conducive 
to  good  citizenship?  Instead  of  proceeding 
to  examine  the  constitution  with  independence 
and  liberality,  the  youth  who  had  been  trained 
under  sectarian  influence  in  the  school,  would 
be  disposed  to  associate  his  particular  religious 
belief  with  the  constitution  of  the  country. 

Humanity}  and  compassion^  and  all  the 
milder  virtues,  as  they  might  be  styled,  are  un- 
folded in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  for  our  admira- 
tion and  imitation,  **All  things  whatsoever  ye 
would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even 
so  to  them^^j  is  the  fraternal  burden  which  the 
author  of  this  bkiied  book  has  gently  laid  upon 
m  alL     When  the  Diiclplis  of  Christ?  urged 


PAST  AND   FUTURE.  39 

by  a  generous  but  mistaken  attachment  to  the 
person  of  their  Master,  desired  that  they  might 
be  permitted  to  call  down  fire  from  heaven  to 
consume  the  churlish  villagers  who  refused 
them  hospitality,  he  rebuked  their  blind  zeal, 
and  assured  them  that  they  knew  not  what 
spirit  they  were  of;  and  thus,  when  any  set  of 
men  would  lock  up  this  treasure  of  Divine 
truth,  or  exclude  it  from  schools  and  semi- 
naries of  learning,  the  most  charitable  construc- 
tion which  we  can  put  upon  their  conduct  is, 
that  they  know  not  what  spirit  they  are  of. 
Had  this  spirit  of  humanity  been  inculcated 
more  generally,  and  impressed  betimes  on  the 
minds  of  the  young,  this  world  would  have 
been  a  far  fitter  abode  for  man  than  it  now  is. 
Religious  persecution  would  have  been  un- 
known, benevolence  would  have  pervaded  every 
heart,  and  men  of  every  nation  and  of  every 
creed,  would  have  been,  in  very  deed,  a  band 
of  brothers. 

We  have  said,  in  the  former  part  of  this  ad- 
dress, that  civil  liberty  had  just  cause  of 
alarm  J  in  this  country,  from  the  encroach- 
ments of  Popery.  The  manner  in  which  the 
Pope  treated,  and  still  continues  to  treat,  his 
Italian  subjects  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  his  op- 
position to  free  institutions.     And  with  what 


40  PAST  AND   FUTURE. 

sincerit}^  can  Eomish  Priests  and  Prelates,  in 
America,  persist  in  asserting  their  preference 
for  Republican  institutions,  when  they  so  lib- 
erally aided  the  Pope  in  his  late  exile,  not  in 
not  in  recovering  his  spiritual  jurisdiction^ 
for  this  was  never  lost,  but  in  regaining  his 
temporal  sovereignty  over  the  poor  Italians, 
who,  but  for  this  aid,  and  the  cooperation  of 
Republican  France  might  have  gained  their 
Liberty  and  separated  Church  and  State,  a  dis- 
solution of  partnership  which  the  Romish 
Priesthood  in  this  county  formerly  affected  so 
much  to  admire.  The  cruelty  perpetrated  in 
putting  down  this  struggle  for  liberty  in  Italy, 
fully  illustrates  the  character  of  the  Papacy. 

The  Church  of  Rome  is  the  same  persecut- 
ing cruel  enemy  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 
now,  that  she  was  in  the  depths  of  the  dark 
?ges  ;  it  is  her  boast  that  she  never  changes, 
and  though  all  things  around  her  bear  unmis- 
takable marks  of  mutation,  she  remains  forever 
the  same.  Her  method  of  suppressing  liberty 
has  ever  been  open  and  aggressive  when  she 
possessed  the  power,  and  when  she  judged  the 
exigency  required  it.  But  in  her  aggressions 
on  those  who  differed  from  herself  in  matters 
of  faith,  never  probably  did  her  zeal  blaze  with 
greater  lustre  than  on  the  eve  of  St.  Barthole^ 


PAST  AND   FUTURK.  41 

mew's  day,  in  1572,  when  thousands  perished 
in  a  single  night.  The  Protestant,  after  the 
usual  salutations  rf  the  night,  surrendered  him- 
self to  sleep,  or  still  lingered  in  the  social  cir- 
cle, when  the  deep  peal  of  the  great  bell  of  the 
Metropolitan  church  aroused  him  to  meet  the 
knife  of  the  midnight  assassin — There  was  in 
this  horrid  transaction  such  a  compound  of  hy- 
pocrisy^ cruelty  and  barbarity,  as  very  rarely 
can  be  met  with  in  the  annals  of  crime.  Ruf- 
fians, with  white  crosses  on  their  shoulders, 
rushed  suddenly  upon  their  unsuspecting  vic- 
tims, sparing  neither  age  nor  sex ;  and  ere  the 
beams  of  the  morning  sun  illuminated  the  spires 
and  domes  of  Paris,  husbands  and  wives,  par- 
ents and  children  w^ere  weltering  in  their  blood, 
a  sad  spectacle  to  men  and  angels. 

But  how  was  the  intelligence  of  this  cold- 
blooded butchery  received  at  Rome?  With 
every  demonstration  of  joy.  The  Sacred  Pon- 
tiff ordered  the  bells  to  send  forth  their  mer- 
riest chimes,  and  Te  Deum  laudamns  to  be 
chanted  in  the  churches,  in  token  of  gratitude 
to  the  Almighty  for  this  signal  victory  over  the 
enemies  of  the  church  ! — Not  even  content  with 
giving  such  proofs  of  his  exultation  on  this  oc- 
casion, he  ordered  a  new  coin  or  medal  to  be 
struck  in  the  Holy  Papal  mint  on  which  was 


42  PAST  AND   FUTURE. 

engraved  "  Hugueriotorum  Strages '',  the  Mur- 
der or  Slaughter  of  the  Huguenots  ! 

But  time  would  fail  us  to  speak  of  the  great 
<'  Sacramental  host  of  God's  elect ",  which  in 
different  times  have  fallen  before  this  implaca- 
ble enemy  of  God  and  man,  who  has  exalted 
himself  above  his  fellows,  and  so  long  lorded 
it  over  God's  heritage. 

But  if  anything  were  wanting  to  finish  the 
picture  of  that  cruelty,  which  has  ever  charac- 
terized the  papal  Government,  it  is  the  worse 
than  savage  treatment  inflicted  on  the  christian 
hero  and  patriot  Ugo  Bassi,  who,  from  attach- 
ment to  his  country,  joined  himself  to  the  val- 
iant and  patriotic  little  army,  who  so  nobly  con- 
tended for  their  Country's  Liberty, — for  that 
Liberty  which  is  the  sacred  birth-right  of 
man  ! 

The  result  of  this  struggle,  like  that  of  un- 
happy but  glorious  Hungary,  is  still  too  fresh 
in  every  mind  to  require  any  additional  remark 
to  recall  it  to  memory  :  Liberty  was  subdued, 
by  brute  force,  and  the  rev.  ugo  bassi,  the 
virtuous  and  patriotic  Priest  and  his  brave  com- 
panions, fell  into  the  hands  of  their  despotic 
enemies. 

But  not  to  prolong  the  painful  recital,  Bassi 
is  condemned,  by  an  Austrian  court-martial,  to 


PAST  AND  FUTURE.  43 

be  shot! — For  what?  Simply  for  what  so 
many  brave  men  did  in  this  country  in  1776 — 
for  contending  nobly  in  the  cause  of  Liberty. 
But  hard  as  his  fate  was  in  being  condemned 
to  suffer  death  at  the  hands  tyrants,  it  was  but 
the  fate  of  war — the  result  to  be  expected  from 
defeat !  We  leave  him,  then,  in  the  hands  of 
the  bloody  soldiers  of  a  haughty  despot,  while 
we  proceed  to  notice  the  treatment  he  received 
from  the  Rofnish  Vriesthoob — men  who  once 
ministered  with  him  at  the  same  altar  !  Surely 
these  holy  men,  bound  by  the  sacred  vows  of 
religion  to  be  mild,  and  merciful,  and  just,  will 
pity  poor  Bassi,   and  do  everything  in  their 

power  to  mitigate  and  assuage  his  grief Mark 

the  compassion  they  discover  for  the  unhappy 
man.  They  rush  upon  him,  like  ravening 
wolves  upon  the  defenceless  flock  :  The  Priest 
must  be  displaced  from  the  ministry,  excom- 
municated from  the  church,  and  handed  over  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  Satan,  so  far  as  these  men 
possessed  the  will  and  malignity  to  send  him 
thither.  But  not  content  with  the  bare  exercise 
oi  these  clerical  powers  and  prerogatives,  these 
blood-hounds  proceed,  with  the  malice  of  De 
mons  and  Infernal  spirits,  to  flay  the  skin  from 
his  hands,  and  to  tear  the  scalp  from  his  bleed- 
ing head  ;    under  the  hypocritical  pretext  of 


44  PAST  AND   FUTURE. 

honoring  God  and  advancing  the  sacred  cause 
of  religion ! — As  a  suitable  punishment  for 
treason  and  heresy,  as  the  means  of  vindicating 
the  claims  of  Religion  !  '^' ) 

To  honor  Religion  9 — The  Religion  of  that 
merciful  and  compassionate  Redeemer  of  men, 
of  whom  it  is  said  by  the  evangelic  Prophet  : 
''A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break."  Oh, 
merciful  Saviour,  how  every  way  dissimilar  was 
thy  spirit  from  the  spirit  of  those  who  boast, 
that  they  alone,  of  the  thousands  "who  profess 
and  call  themselves  christians,"  are  thy  true 
disciples — the  only  called  according  to  thy 
purpose  !  Oh,  what  a  monstrous  libel  is  the 
cruel  despotism  of  Romanism  on  the  blood- 
bought  Religion  of  the  Son  of  God  !  What 
greater  dissimilarity  could  be  imagined  to  exist 
in  the  widely  extended  universe  of  God,  than 
that  which  distinguishes  Romanism  from  the 
mild  and  merciful  religion  of  Jesus  Christ ! 
Christ  came  into  the  world,  to  save — not  to 
destroy — to  pardon — not  to  condemn  :  While 
on  the  contrary,  Romanism  seems  to  delight  in 
devising  new  modes  of  torment  for  the  punish- 
ment of  its  unhappy  victims. 


*)  The  substance  of  this  tragic  account  was  obtained 
from  a  most  respectable  Religious  Journal  published  in  the 
citv  of  St.  Louis. 


PAST  AND   FUTURE.  46 

Instead  of  assuaging  the  griefs  of  mankind, 
and  cheering  them  on  their  pilgrimage  through 
life,  the  church  of  Rome  delights  in  pressing  as 
much  of  bitterness  as  she  can,  into  every  one's 
cup,  for  the  good  of  his  soul  and  the  honor  of 
religion.  By  her  anathemas  and  excommuni- 
cations, her  fasts  and  penances,  she  would  seem 
resolved  to  make  the  world  a  howling  wilder- 
ness -the  fit  abode  of  hermits  and  monks,  rather 
than  the  cheerful  residence  of  social  beings  ! 

As  dispensed  by  Romish  Priests,  how,  I 
would  ask,  can  the  Gospel  prove,  as  its  name 
imports,  "  Good  tidings  "  which  shall  be  to  all 
people  ? — Did  it  speak  this  language  when  it 
charged  the  Priests  to  tear  the  scalp  from  the 
bleeding  head  of  Bassi  ? 

But  why  select  this  from  among  the  thousand 
bloody  acts  which  have  marked  the  cruel  pro- 
gress of  Romanism  ? 

Where  are  the  thousands,  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands, snatched,  by  this  nursing  mother,  from 
all  the  ties  of  friends  and  kindred,  and  con- 
signed to  the  gloomy  dungeons  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion ! 

Romanism  has  ever  been  the  enemy  of  civil 
and  religious  Liberty  ;  and  if  she  has  some- 
times appeared  to  espouse  the  rights  of  the 
People,  it  has  been  to  punish  the  insolence  of 


46  PAST  AND   FUTURE. 

some  haughty  Monarch,  whom  she  regarded  as 
a  rival  in  power. 

Rome  can  hear  no  Rival.  She  can  ac- 
knowledge no  superior ;  hence  her  eternal  en- 
mity to  the  various  governments  of  the  world. 

"  Trw^A,"  she  avers  by  her  dignitaries,  '^  has 
ever  been  hostile  to  error ^^"^  and  she  assumes 
that  she  only  has  the  truth  ! — that  she  only 
knows  how  to  explain  and  enforce  it :  and  this 
she  has  done,  by  that  attitude  of  antagonism  in 
which  she  has  opposed  progress  and  humanity, 
and  the  sacred  rights  of  man,  under  the  specious 
pretext,  that  they  are  errors^  and  opposed  to 
the  honor  and  interests  of  religion  ! 

The  exercise  of  private  or  individual  judg- 
ment is  regarded  by  Romanism,  as  rebellion 
against  God,  as  impiety  and  blasphemy,  as 
treason  against  heaven  and  the  church,  as 
fraught  with  every  conceivable  mischief  to  re- 
ligion. 

And  here,  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  Romanism 
and  the  Protestant  or  Reformed  religion,  are 
in  a  condition  of  antagonism  !  Both  possess 
vitality,  both  contend  for  the  mastery.  Should 
the  former  succeed  in  her  ambitious  designs, 
the  darkness  of  by-gone  ages  would  again  re- 
turn. The  clouds  would  return  again  after  the 
rain — after  the  refreshing  showers  of  the  early 


PAST  AND  FUTURE,  47 

part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  dark  clouds 
of  ignorance  and  superstition,  it  is  much  to  be 
feared,  would  once  more  cover  the  horizon  of 
the  church,  and  divine  truth  would  again  be 
obscured. 

Formerly,  physical  force  was  employed  in 
settling  differences  on  the  subject  of  religion 
and  civil  liberty.  Now  it  is  to  be  hoped,  that 
a  better  method  will  be  resorted  to,  that  of  ar- 
gument— not  brute  force  ;  alike  dishonorable 
to  the  head  and  heart — to  the  intellect  and 
the  moral  sensibilities. 

But  A  BATTLE    MUST  BE  FOUGHT  ;    but  it  will 

not  be  fought  by  the  dim  twilight  of  the  middle 
ages,  nor  in  priest-ridden  Italy  or  Austria,  but 
in  the  full  blaze  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
on  the  free  soil  of  America  !  The  priests  will 
not  find  the  despotic  kings  and  emperors  of  the 
old  world  at  their  side,  to  support  them  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  ambitious  and  politic  de- 
signs ;  but  the  free  and  independent  people  of 
America,  who  will  yield  to  no  foreign  influ- 
ence nor  submit  to  any  authority,  civil  or  re- 
ligious, which  cannot  be  made  to  coincide  with 
the  rights  of  freemen.  And  on  these  points 
they  are  accustomed  to  judge  for  themselves. 

For  information  on  the  first  point,  they  go 
not  to  the  President,  but  to  the  Constitu- 


48  PAST  AND   FUTURE. 

TioN  ;  and  for  light  on  the  second,  they  resort 
not  to  the  Priest,  but  to  the  Bible  ! 

On  the  manner,  therefore,  in  which  this  sub- 
ject is  approached,  may  the  prosperity  of  this 
great  Republic  and  the  happiness  and  intelli- 
gence of  unborn  millions  be  suspended. 

The  influence  which  the  Pope  exercises  over 
his  subjects,  is  the  most  despotic  that  can  be 
imagined  ! 

Popery  leaves  to  man  nothing  but  the  hu- 
man form,  and  holds  him  accountable  for  the 
manner  in  which  he  exercises  every  faculty  of 
mind  or  body  !  How,  therefore,  can  such  per- 
sons,— bound  by  oaths  and  obligations  written 
in  blood,  and  enforced  under  the  pains  and  pen- 
alties of  the  divine  displeasure,  bear  true  alle- 
giance to  these  free  and  independent  States  of 
America  9 

Impossible  ! — the  thing  is  utterly  impossible ; 
and  until  some  method  can  be  devised,  by 
which  darkness  can  be  blended  with  light, 
truth  with  falsehood,  meekness  with  arrogance, 
and  mercy  with  cruelty  and  savage  barbarity, 
it  will  be  worse  than  idle  to  assert,  that  civil 
and  religious  liberty  have  nothing  to  apprehend 
from  the  usurpations  and  encroachments  of 
Popery  ! 


APPENDIX 


The  author  of  the  preceeding  pages  has 
charged  Romanism  with  being  unfriendly  to 
progress,  in  whatever  sense  the  term  may  be 
legitimately  understood,  in  its  application  to 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  the  right  of 
private  judgment. 

In  this  second  edition  of  the  little  work, 
which  he  now  presents  to  the  public,  with 
such  slight  alterations  as  he  hopes  may  make 
it  more  interesting  and  acceptable  to  his  read- 
ers, he  will  prove,  by  quotations  from  a  most 
respectable  Roman  Catholic  journal,  "The 
Shepherd  of  the  Valley,"  published  in  the  city 
of  St.  Louis,  under  the  protection  of  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  prelates  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  that  the  views  w^iich  he  has 
advanced,  so  far  from  being  rejected,  are  con- 
firmed by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  the 
present  age;  thus  showing  that  Romanism  is 
ever  the  same,  both  with  respect  to  date  and 
country,  and  aims  to  control  republics  as  well 
as  monarchies. 


50  APPENDIX. 

In  the  introductory  part  of  this  little  book, 
the  author  observes  that,  "  of  all  the  nations 
on  which  the  sun  shines,  the  American  Re- 
public is  the  only  government  in  which  liberty 
is  well  understood — the  only  country  in  which 
the  people  possess  the  governing  power,  and 
are  able  to  control  their  public  servants." 

After  the  many  ardent  professions,  in  high 
places  among  the  Roman  Catholics,  of  strong 
attachment  to  this  republic  and  our  free  institu- 
tions, "The  Shepherd  of  the  Valley"  gives 
utterance,  and  no  doubt  with  great  sincerity  to 
the  following  language  : 

"  The  Church,  it  is  true,  does  not  admit  the 
doctrine,  so  universally  received  in  this  coun- 
try, that  republicanism  is  the  only  legitimate 
form  of  civil  government :  that  freedom  is  im- 
possible where  this  form  is  not  established. 
She  does  not  profess  to  recognize  the  United 
States  of  America  as  the  censor  of  nations, 
nor  does  she,  w^e  believe,  iji  any  way,  inti- 
mate a  preference  for  a  republic  over  other 
forms  of  government,  considered  in  themselves. 
Where  it  [a  republic]  lawfully  exists,  she  com- 
mands her  children  to  respect  and  obey  it,  and 
that  is  all.'' 

The  most  careless  reader  can  scarcely  help, 
noticing  in  this  extract  from  "  The  Shepherd 


APPENDIX.  51 

of  the  Valley,"  a  most  striking  contrast  and 
palpable  contradiction,  to  those  oft  repeated 
professions  of  loyalty  and  attachment  for  re- 
publican institutions,  which,  from  time  to  time, 
have  so  profusely  garnished  the  public  orations 
of  the  Most  Rev.  John  Hughes,  Arch  Bishop 
of  New  York,  and  which  have  been  used,  se- 
cond-handed, by  men  of  less  intellectual 
strength,  who  have  followed  in  his  wake. 

These  gentlemen,  until  quite  recently,  have 
been  accustomed  to  laud,  with  imited  voice, 
our  free  institutions  to  the  skies;  Lut  now  they 
"command  their  children  to  respect  and  obey 
them,  and  that  is  all." 

What  a  falling  off  is  this  !  And  to  what 
cause  are  we  to  ascribe  it  ?  To  what  are  we 
to  attribute  this  haughty  and  imperious  front 
which  they  now  present  to  our  institutions  ? 
Simply  to  reliance  on  their  numerical  strength 
in  this  country. 

But  the  <' Shepherd  of  the  Valley"  is  not 
content  with  showing  his  utter  indifference  for 
republican  institutions  ;  he  does  more.  In  his 
clerical  and  pastoral  character,  he  declares  his 
most  decided  disapprobation  of  them;  and 
like  a  faithful  son  of  his  venerable  mother, 
denounces  and  curses  them.  He  calls  our  na- 
tional faith  ««the  religion  of  the  devil."     "It 


52  APPENDIX. 

seems,"  lie  adds,  ''a  harsh  tiling  to  say;  but 
we  are  not  of  those  who  think  ivith  Richlieu, 
[Query — whether  ever  Richlieu  said  it  ?]  that 
language  was  given  to  man  to  enable  him 
to  conceal  his  thoughts.  We  think  so,  and 
therefore  we  say  it.  The  advocate  of  freedom 
of  speech  should  not  object  to  that."  Nor  do 
we,  good  "  Shepherd  of  the  Valley,"  but  give 
you  full  credit  for  sincerity.  To  use  your 
own  language,  we  think  "the  devil  speaks  out 
like  an  honest  devil,"  when  he  declares  from 
the  lips  ot  Romish  prelates,  or  from  their  pub- 
lic journals,  that  popery  has  no  sympathy  with 
our  republican  institutions. 

In  the  course  of  his  remarks  in  the  foregoing 
pages,  the  author  observes,  that  "  Romanism 
differs  most  widely  and  essentially,  from  every 
other  religious  system  in  this,  that  it  owes  un- 
dying and  eternal  allegiance  to  a  foreign  sov- 
ereign." 

This  charge  against  Romanism,  the  "  Shep- 
herd of  the  Valley"  makes  good,  when  he  as- 
serts, that  "it  is  not  true,  as  some  say,  that  the 
Catholic  is  left  by  his  Church  free  to  adopt 
any  political  theories  which  it  suits  his  tempo- 
ral interests  to  espouse  for  the  time."  Here, 
again,  we  give  the  "  Shepherd"  credit  for  sin- 
cerity ;  and  although  we  have  often  been  told 


APPENDIX.  53 

that  ill  the  exercise  of  their  political  rights  and 
privileges,  the  Roman  Catholics  were  as  free 
as  the  Protestants,  yet  we  never  believed  such 
persons,  but  regarded  them  as  being  either  ig- 
norant or  interested,  and  therefore  not  worthy 
of  entire  confidence.  The  "Shepherd"  gives 
us  the  true  statement  of  the  case,  for  w^hicii  we 
thank  him. 

But  the  worthy  *' Shepherd  of  the  Valley" 
proceeds  to  give  a  very  plausible  reason  why 
men  should  not  be  permitted  to  exercise  the 
right  of  judging  for  themselves,  in  political 
atfairs.  "The  civil  power,"  he  says,  "has 
its  limits ;  it  may  overstep  them,  for  it  is  not 
infallible  like  the  Church  :  when  it  does  so, 
obedience  at  once  ceases  to  be  a  duty.  The 
question  of  the  justice  or  injustice-  of  a  civil 
enactment  is  one,  however,  which  the  individ- 
ual is  not  competent  to  decide  the  fact  of  the 
necessity  of  a  tribunal  capable  of  determining 
a  point  like  this,  is  presumptive  evidence  in 
favor  of  the  claims  of  the  Church  ;  and  the 
fact  that  the  Church  is  such  tribunal,  is  a 
sufficient  answer  to  all  those  who  declaim 
against  her,  as  the  enemy  of  the  rights  of  man. 
Civil  liberty  cannot  exist  without  the  Church." 
(Roman  Catholic,  of  course.)  "  Where  she 
is  not  recognized,  anarchy  or  despotism  must 


64  APPENDIX. 

of  necessity  prevail.  Grant  that  no  tribunal 
exists,  capable  of  pronouncing  when  the  State 
transcends  its  powers ;  when  man  is  freed  from 
the  obligation  of  obedience,  and  when  it  be- 
comes sinful  to  obey  ;  and  you  either  establish 
despotism  by  asserting  that  every  State  enact- 
ment must  of  necessity  be  obeyed,  or  destroy 
government  altogether,  and  introduce  universal 
disorder,  by  applying  to  practical  life,  that 
most  absurd  of  all  doctrines,  the  doctrine  of 
the  right  of  private  judgment.''^ 

Such  startling  language  as  this,  is  calculated 
to  awaken  the  keenest  apprehension  in  the 
mind  of  every  one  who  regards  either  national 
or  individual  liberty.  The  government  and  the 
individual  citizen  are  here  represented,  by  the 
"  Shepherd  of  the  Valley,"  as  alike  incompe- 
tent to  form  a  correct  judgment  of  the  validity 
or  propriety  of  a  legislative  enactment ;  as  ut- 
terly unable  to  determine  ''  when  man  is  freed 
from  the  obligation  of  obedience,  and  when  it 
becomes  sinful  to  obey."  No  other  tribunal 
or  body  can  determine  this  most  important 
point,  save  the  Church  of  Rojne.  Are  reflect-, 
ing  American  citizens  prepared  to  subscribe  to 
this  doctrine,  so  distinctly  announced  by  the 
"  Shepherd  of  the  Valley  "  ?  Are  they  ready 
to  give  up  themselves  and  their  country  into 


APPENDIX.  65 

the  hands  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and 
as  her  bond-men,  submit  to  any  terms  she  may 
be  pleased  to  dictate  ? 

We  have  been  long  accustomed  to  that 
watch-word,  "  Hear  the  Church,"  as  falsely 
applied  by  the  old  lady  of  Rome  to  her  spirit- 
ual dictation,  but  were  not  altogether  prepared 
for  its  direct  application  to  the  affairs  of  civil 
government  also. 

We  had  always  supposed  that  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  was  the  tribunal 
of  final  appeal  to  w^iich  legislative  enactment 
should  be  brought  for  adjudication ;  but  the 
good  "  Shepherd  of  the  Valley"  teaches  us 
our  mistake,  and  tells  us  that  we  must  bring  up 
all  such  enactments  to  the  Court  of  Rome  for 
final  settlement.  Privilege  !  privilege  !  with  a 
vengeance.  No  marvel,  under  this  view  of  the 
case,  that  the  "  Shepherd  of  the  Valley " 
should  regard  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  as 
the  great  sine  que  non  in  the  science  of  gov- 
ernment, as  the  only  means  of  prolonging  the 
"existence  of  civil  liberty."  We  only  add, 
in  this  place,  that  we  most  sincerely  pray,  that 
it  may  be  long  before  this  great  republic  will 
consent  to  carry  up  appeals  to  the  court  of 
Rome,  or  crouch  before  papal  power. 

We  still  feel  slow  to  yield  our  assent  to  the 


66  APPENDIX. 

assertion  of  the  "  Shepherd's,"  viz.:  that  the 
only  hope  of  this  great  republic  is  suspended 
on  the  progress  of  Romanism  in  this  country. 
How,  we  beg  leave  to  ask,  can  Romanism 
prove  a  blessing  to  this  country,  when  it  has 
been  a  curse  to  every  other  country  on  which 
it  has  been  fastened? 

True  it  is,  that  in  the  estimation  of  this  pa- 
per, that  most  detestable  ''doctrine  of  the  right 
of  private  judgment"  would  be  rooted  out  of 
the  land,  yet  in  sober  truth,  in  what  respect 
we  should  become  gainers  by  the  change,  is 
difficult  to  determine;  but  the  "Shepherd" 
tells  us  so,  and  as  obedient  children  of  the 
Church,  we  should  have  nothing  to  do  but  sub- 
mit to  the  dictation  of  Holy  Mother,  who  can- 
not err! 

Little  as  we  can  discover  in  the  person  of 
an  old  Italian  priest,  some  thousands  of  miles 
distant,  to  engage  our  attention  and  challenge 
our  respect,  yet  it  is  only  by  swearing  spiritual 
allegiance  to  this  old  imbecile,  that  the  "  Shep- 
herd" can  promise  us  even  prolonged  exist- 
ence AS  A  nation — the  only  way  the  "  Shep- 
herd can  devise  of  saving  the  country  ! 
*  But  we  proceed  to  shew  that  the  "  Shep- 
herd "  feels  a  strong  preference  for  monarchical 
institutions.      He   continues   in    this    liberal 


APPENDIX.  67 

strain  :  "  We  must  be  loyal  to  our  republican 
institutions,  because  they  are  legitimate  here.'^ 
Mark  the  reason  he  assigns  for  the  necessity  of 
this  prolonged  loyalty  on  the  part  of  Roman 
Catholics  in  this  country.  But  he  immediate- 
ly adds:  "  Were  we  subjects  of  a  monarchy, 
however,  the  case  would  be  reversed,  and  we 
should  then  be  compelled  to  true  obedience  to 
the  existing  order,  so  long  as  it  preserved  its 
claims  to  our  obedience,  by  setting  us  the  ex- 
ample  of  subbordination  in  its  own  submis- 
sion TO  THE  LAWS  OF  GoD  AND  THE  ChURCH  !  " 

Here  we  have  it ;  so  long  as  the  existing  gov- 
ernment, whether  republic  or  monarchy,  sub- 
mits  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  so  long 
the  Church  will  command  her  subjects  to  obey 
the  civil  government,  and  no  longer! 

No  comment  that  we  could  offer,  would 
place  this  Romish  domination  in  a  clearer  or 
stronger  light,  than  that  in  which  it  is  placed 
by  this  last  extract  from  the  '-  Shepherd." 

Wliether  priest  or  prelate,  or  whoever  may 
have  been  the  author  of  the  article,  the  drift  of 
the  artful  writer  is  evidently  this,  viz.:  to  place 
the  Romish  church  above  the  civil  govern- 
ment, and  to  dictate  the  manner  and  matter  of 
legislation.  However  disguised  by  Jesuitical 
cimning  and  sophistry,  the  ultimate  design  of 


68  APPENDIX. 

the  party  is  here    hinted   at,  in  language  too 
obvious  to  be  misunderstood  by  any  reader. 

But  the  ''Shepherd"  does  not  attempt  to 
defend  the  Church  of  Rome  from  the  charge  of 
DESPOTISM.  Indeed,  he  confesses  that  "the 
Church  cannot  be  defended  from  the  charge  of 
favoring  despotism,  if  a  monarchy  is  essentially 
a  despotism,  for  she  would  interfere  to  protect 
the  just  authority  of  the  throne,  no  less  than  to 
shelter  the  people,  as  she  has  done  a  thousand 
times,  from  an  abuse  of  that  authority."  We 
clearly  discover,  in  this  last  extract  from  the 
"  Shepherd  of  the  Valley,"  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  that  authority  over  civil  government, 
which  the  Church  of  Rome,  with  the  Pope  at 
its  head,  pretends  to  claim,  as  a  prerogative  by 
divine  right,  and  which  he  tells  us  she  has  ex- 
ercised "  a  thousand  times."  Those  who  are 
wont  to  sympathize  with  the  Romish  apostacy 
in  this  country,  do  sometimes  tell  us,  by  way 
of  apology  for  that  spurious  Church,  that  al- 
though the  Pope  did  formerly,  during  the  dark 
ages,  depose  kings  from  their  thrones,  and  give 
their  kingdoms  to  others,  releasing  their  sub- 
jects from  their  oath  of  allegiance,  yet  that  now 
the  thing  is  quite  changed,  and  that  they  lay 
claim  to  no  such  power !  But  does  the 
"  Shepherd  of  the  Valley  "  confirm  this  gra- 


APPENDIX.  59 

tuitous  apology?  No,  nothing  of  the  kind; 
and,  let  the  author  remark  here,  that  the  Church 
of  Rome  gives  little  praise  to  those  who  at- 
tempt to  apologize  for  her  conduct,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  her  immutability! 

Notwithstanding  the  Saviour  of  the  world 
unequivocally  declares,  "My  kingdom  is  not 
of  this  world,"  yet  ever  since  the  bishop  of 
Rome  obtained  (partly  by  gift  and  concession, 
but  more  by  usurpation,)  the  proud  title  of 
Sovereign  Pontiff,  he  has  claimed  this  right, 
and  still  exercises  it  over  Spain,  Portugal,  Aus- 
tria, Naples,  and  wherever  ignorance  and  su- 
perstition prevail. 

The  governments  support  the  papacy ;  and 
the  papacyj  in  return,  sanctions  their  despotic 
acts,  and  commands  the  people  to  yield  obedi- 
ence to  their  arbitrary  rulers,  under  pain  of  ex- 
communication I 

The  "Shepherd''  further  informs  us,  that 
"the  Catholic  has  no  mission  to  propagate  de- 
mocracy.'^ We  never  supposed  he  had;  we 
might  as  well  look  to  the  Emperors  of  Russia 
or  Austria  for  the  exercise  of  such  a  mission, 
as  to  expe  t  it  from  the  Church  of  Rome, 

While  the  "Shepherd"  proclaims  the  Church 
to  be  "  indeed  the  friend  of  the  people,  the 
only  refuge  of  the  individual  and  the  masses  in 


60  APPENDIX. 

every  time  of  trouble,"  yet  it  adds :  *'  It  i§ 
false  to  say,  that  she  prefers  the  liberty  cap  to 
(he  crown,  or  the  liberty-pole  to  the  sceptre." 

This  last  quotation  shows  how  strongly  the 
great  Metropolitan  Shepherd  is  attached  to  re- 
publican institutions  !  Verily,  the  Church  of 
Rome  cannot  be  defended  from  *^  favoring  des* 
potism,"  when  she  cordially  approves  the  gov- 
ernments of  Italy,  Austria,  Spain,  Portugal, 
and  Naples,  and  has  used  her  best  exertions  to 
extinguish  liberty  in  Europe  generally,  wher« 
ever  her  influence  has  extended. 

But  the  "  Shepherd"  reserves  his  most  spirit- 
ed attack  for  the  castigation  of  Protestantism  : 
*'  The  Church,  we  hear,  is  hostile  to  liberty  ; 
obscures  the  dignity  of  human  nature ;  would 
trample  under  foot  the  rights  of  man  i  is  every- 
where leagued  with  despots  againgt  their  un- 
happy subjects ;  and  opposes,  and  always  has 
opposed,  all  intellectual  and  social  progress. 
In  short,  in  this  country,  the  devil  speaks  out 
like  an  honest  devil.  He  takes  up  his  old  cry 
of  rebellion;  he  persuades  men  that  none  but 
tyrants  would  demand  obedience  and  submis- 
sion ;  he  proves  that  the  Church  does  demand 
obedience,  absolute  and  implicit  obedience, 
from  her  children  to  herself,  and  all  legitimate 
"Civil  rulers,  and  he  flatters  himself  that  his 


APPENDIX.  61 

task  is  done,  and  in  very  many  cases  the  devil 
is  right.  When  he  has  done  this  he  has  made 
out  his  case,  and  confirmed  in  their  rebellion 
against  the  Church,  all  who  are  determined  to 
maintain  the  supremacy  of  man.  Dr.  John- 
son said  that  the  devil  was  the  first  whig.  By 
this  he  meant  that  he  was  the  first  created  be- 
ing that  rebelled  against  his  legitimate  ruler. 
lie  would  have  done  better  had  he  said  that 
the  devil  teas  the  first  Protestant.'^ 

In  a  similar  strain  the  "Shepherd''  con- 
tinues: '^  Liberty  and  authority  are  not  re- 
concilable on  Frotestant  principles.^'  And 
once  more,  to  the  same  efl^ect :  "  Protestantism 
as  it  really  is  not  a  religion,  not  a  positive  sys- 
tem or  collection  of  systems,  but  the  incarnate 
demon  of  rebellion  against  all  authority  and 
law.  As  such,  the  Catholic  is  bound  to  flee 
from  it  as  from  a  pestilence ;  is  bound  to  use 
all  his  influence  in  every  way  [fire  and  faggot 
not  excepted]  to  check  and  put  it  down." 

In  a  recent  number  of  the  "  Shepherd  of  the 
Valley,"  the  WTiter,  after  asserting  religious 
toleration  to  be  the  work  of  the  devil,  and 
deeply  to  be  deplored  in  "  this  miserable  coun- 
try," uses  the  following  language  ;  "  Religious 
toleration  and  civil  toleration  are,  however,  we 
admit,  things  perfectly   distinct.      The   first, 


62  APPENDIX. 

every  christian  is  bound  to  condemn;  the  second, 
he  will  and  must  approve,  wherever  it  is  expe- 
dient." Note,  here,  it  may,  in  some  cases, 
be  expedient  to  kill  heretics,  and  then  every 
true  christian  (Catholic)  "  must  approve  "  of 
it !  '^  We  will  say,  however,  that  we  are  not 
in  favor  of  roasting  heretics  ,  but  we  are  not, 
therefore,  going  to  deny  the  facts  of  history,  or 
to  blame  the  saints  of  God,  and  the  doctors  and 
pastors  of  the  Church,  for  what  they  have  done 
and  sanctioned.  We  say  that  the  temporal 
punishment  of  heresy  is  a  mere  question  of  ex- 
pediency ;  that  protestants  do  not  persecute  us 
here,  simply  because  they  have  not  the  power; 
and  that  where  we  abstain  from  persecuting 
them,  they  are  well  aware  that  it  is  merely  be- 
cause we  cannot  do  so,  or  think  that  by  doing 
so  we  should  injure  the  cause  that  we  wish  to 
serve.  We  are  all  intolerant — all  of  us  [i.  e. 
all  Roman  Catholics]  who  believe." 

The  reader  must  be  convinced  that  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church  is  truly  hostile  to  repub- 
lican institutions,  individual  liberty,  and  the 
protestant  faith,  which,  under  God,  is  the  prime 
author  of  all  our  blessings,  national  and  social, 
and,  therefore,  to  be  cherished  by  every  true 
republican  and  sincere  friend  of  his  country. 

By  way  of  applying  these  remarks,  we  add, 


APPENDIX.  63 

that  principles  will  and  ought  to  be  freely  and 
fully  discussed  in  this  country.  The  spirit  of 
the  age  and  the  genius  of  our  government  re- 
quire it.  And  yet,  strange  to  say,  not  only 
Roman  Catholics,  but  even  some  protestants 
are  to  be  found,  who  are  utterly  averse  to  free 
discussion  !  Protestants  should  remember,  that 
religious  liberty  and  free  discussion  go  hand  in 
hand.  To  look  upon  free  discussion,  then,  in 
the  light  of  persecution,  is  all  wrong,  and  dis- 
covers a  prejudice  and  narrowness  of  mind,  bet- 
ter adapted  to  down-trodden  Italy  or  priest-rid- 
den Austria  or  Spain,  than  to  free  republican 
America.  Free  discussion,  whether  in  refer- 
ence to  politics  or  religion,  in  a  government 
proceeding  from  the  people,  is  all  important, 
and  should  be  so  regarded  by  freemen  U 

Those  great  principles  which  lie  at  the  foun- 
dation of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  call  for 
patient  investigation,  in  order  that  freemen  may 
duly  appreciate  their  just  rights,  and  have  wis- 
dom to  defend  them  against  every  hurtful  influ- 
ence. 

Americans  are  not  easily  intimidated  by  de- 
nunciations, either  from  popish  journals  or 
presses.  The  time  has  passed  for  this  bravado; 
this  spirit  of  defiance,  this  priestly  blustering 


64  APPENDIX. 

aad  cursing  belongs  to  ages  which  have  passed, 
we  hope  never  to  return. 

Let  such  men  as  Archbishop  Hughes,  O.  A. 
Brownson  &  Co.,  see  how  very  unbecoming  it  • 
is  to  attempt  to  palm  the  tyranical  government 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  on  free  America.  How 
every  way  incompatible  such  gross  denuncia- 
tions as  the  following,  with  their  oft  repeated 
protestations  of  loyalty  and  attachment  for 
republican  institutions :  They  denounce  our 
national  faith  as  *'  the  religion  of  the  devil." 
The  Protestant  religion  as  "  no  religion,"  but 
a  moral  pestilence,"  -'  a  system  of  anarchy, 
which  every  consistent  Catholic  should  labor 
in  every  way  in  his  power  to  check  and  put 
down." 

Thi^  is  neither  the  age  nor  the  country  to 
denounce  Protestants  from  the  pulpit,  as  hav- 
ing forfeited  their  lives  to  divine  justice,"  be- 
cause they  refuse  to  submit  to  the  authority  of 
the  Pope.  To  these  agents  of  the  so  styled 
holy  father,  we  would  say,  *' bless  and  curse 
not ;  "  and  to  our  readers  and  patrons  beg  leave 
to  add,  that  while  we  hold  fast  the  Bible,. the 
constitution,  and  free  discussion,  we  shall  have 
nothing  to  fear. 

THE   END. 


